formatting/partitioning methods in HAL

[Artem Kachitchkine]

> Why can't we just pick up the permissions from the associated /dev
> file, and allow/disallow access based on that? This all seems like
> it's the admin's and distro's domain.

Yes, device permissions can be one indicator of ownership. How 
permissions are set in the first place is defined by system policies. 
Whether there should be some coordination between ownership policies and 
HAL, is an interesting question.

-Artem.